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John Adams: Butch Jones moving up in SEC coaching ranks

John Adams, the Knoxville News Sentinel
Published 3:56 p.m. ET April 11, 2016

More than Tennessee football has gained SEC ground in the past year. So has its coach.

Butch Jones' improved status among conference coaches isn't related solely to a 9-4 season, UT's best since 2007. It's also connected to what else has happened around the league.

There's no surefire barometer for ranking SEC coaches. But if you did so based strictly on what they have accomplished within the conference, Jones would have been ranked much closer to the bottom than the top this time last year.

He was behind Steve Spurrier, who built an SEC dynasty at Florida and coached South Carolina to new heights; Gary Pinkel, who won more games than any other coach in Missouri history; and Mark Richt, who averaged better than nine victories per season in 15 years at Georgia. In case you haven't noticed, they're all gone.

And Jones ranks ahead of their replacements: first-time SEC head coaches Kirby Smart at Georgia and Barry Odom at Missouri, as well as Will Muschamp, who landed the South Carolina job despite failing at Florida.

So in just one season, Jones has gone from the bottom tier of conference coaches to the middle of the pack. He's in position to move up again this season, and not just because the Vols are expected to contend for the SEC championship.

A number of conference coaches could be in trouble by the end of the 2016 season.

Of the current conference coaches, LSU's Les Miles is second only to Alabama's Nick Saban. He has won a national championship and averaged better than 10 wins per season for 11 years. Balance that success against his general goofiness, a recent record of underachieving, and a nagging habit of coming up short against Saban, who preceded Miles as LSU's coach.

Translation: Miles is one more underachieving season away from being a former LSU coach.

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn — like Jones entering his fourth season as an SEC head coach — also ranks ahead of Jones. Not only has Malzahn won more games, his first Auburn team played for a national championship.

Since then, Malzahn has demonstrated a Miles-like knack for underachieving. That alone is enough to make Auburn fans restless. Their discontent is exacerbated by the fact that rival Alabama has won four of the past seven national championships.

You also can add Texas A&M to the growing list of conference underachievers. You know what that means for coach Kevin Sumlin.

It means his seat could become as hot as Mark Stoops' at Kentucky and Derek Mason's at Vanderbilt.

In an unexpected development, the conference's two most secure coaches behind Saban both reside in Mississippi.

Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze has won 34 games in four seasons at a school that was at the bottom of the conference when he assumed command. Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen has had six consecutive winning seasons at a school that lost eight or more games in seven of the eight seasons before he arrived.

Florida should be feeling good about Jim McElwain after he won 10 games with a modestly talented team in his first season. But it's hard for any Florida coach to feel secure until he has won a conference championship. And a fast start at a new job doesn't always work in a coach's favor.

Jones' 5-7 first season at Tennessee wasn't any better than his predecessor's last season. But Jones has done what Derek Dooley didn't. His team has continued to improve — from 5-7 to 7-6 to 9-4 to what could be a double-digit-win season in 2016.